San Francisco Police Department officers from the Juvenile Division’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) unit and the Special Investigations Division arrested a Martinez man in a lewd conduct case September 2. Steve Ranse, 46, was arrested at a Balboa Street café where he was to meet who he believed was a 13-year-old girl, contacted through an on-line chat room. Police found incriminating sexually related evidence in Ranse’s car.

Ranse has been charged with Penal Code Section 288(a), attempted lewd conduct with a child under 14 years of age, a felony.

ICAC has a two-fold purpose of education and enforcement in the area of Internet crimes involving the exploitation of minors.